Monday, May 15, 2006

Tamper Proof ID Card?

President Bush has stated that a vital component of any "guest worker" program (think slavery lite, all the bennies with none of the fuss and muss of actual slaves).

A vital component...

WASHINGTON, May 13 — The Department of Homeland Security has invested tens of millions of dollars and countless hours of labor over the last four years on a seemingly simple task: creating a tamperproof identification card for airport, rail and maritime workers.

Yet nearly two years past a planned deadline, production of the card, known as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, has yet to begin.

Instead, the road to delivering this critical antiterrorism tool has taken detours to locations, companies and groups often linked to Representative Harold Rogers, a Kentucky Republican who is the powerful chairman of the House subcommittee that controls the Homeland Security budget.

It is a route that has benefited Mr. Rogers, creating jobs in his home district and profits for companies that are donors to his political causes. The congressman has also taken 11 trips — including six to Hawaii — on the tab of an organization that until this week was to profit from a no-bid contract Mr. Rogers helped arrange. Work has even been set aside for a tiny start-up company in Kentucky that employs John Rogers, the congressman's son.

Oh my, that's just rich. Care to wager that a "tamper proof ID" will figger in the president's speech tomorrow night?

Is this a delightful preview of the corruption and cronyism we can expect as we're force fed a minimum of 12 million new "Americans."